ecovlke's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 12: My People's History, My History Part I Chapter 12: My People's History, My History Part I I was raised away from my people, the Mvskoke (Creek). Throughout my life I have had contact with my real family. I know who my people are, and I know who I am. Today I try to remain active in affairs concerning my people, and I attend ceremonies from time to time. The title of my diary, Ecovlke, is in reference to my clan, Eco (Deer). Ecovlke means people of the deer. My tribal town is Raprakko (Thlopthlocco). This name refers to the place where the canes used for making blowguns were gathered. My people originally came from the southeastern part of the U.S. Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. In the 1830s we were displaced, along with numerous other tribes in the region, by President Andrew Jackson. Yes, the man on the twenty dollar bill. We were removed, on what the whites called the Trail of Tears, to the newly formed Indian Territory. Now Oklahoma. So I was born in exile so to speak. I have never been to my ancestral homeland. At least not yet. I would like to share a little of my people's history with you. To fully appreciate the importance of tribal towns to Creek Indian identity, it is important to understand a little of the history of our matrilineal society. Town membership is not a matter of choice, but a circumstance of birth, as is a person's clan membership. Both are determined by matrilineal descent. Clans play an important role in tribal town organization. Later I will explain the origin of the animal clan names. I heard the story that I am about to relate from my grandfather's cousin. He was a medicine man, and a spiritual leader for the American Indian Movement. In the beginning, the Red Clan descended from the sky on seven blocks of wood. They spoke one language and settled in the lands of the east. They were the Tokepace (Tuckabachee). In the west, the White Clan came out of the earth. They were the Koweta (Coweta), Kvsseta (Kashita), and Cekvsulke (Chickasaw). The Chickasaw people are a seperate tribe, but of the Muskhogean language stock, so a lot of our words are nearly the same. The children of these last three groups would not grow up, so the people moved eastwards towards the rising sun, for the sun was the puriest thing their eyes could see. During their migration they came upon a thundering moutain with red smoke billowing from its crest. There, they found a trembling pole that could not be stopped, so the people took an orphaned child and slammed it against the pole. This killed the baby, the pole stopped trembling, and the people took the pole with them on their trip eastward. Whenever they would stop, they set up the pole; whichever way it fell, they would go in that direction. Always it fell toward the east. They traveled until they came to the Atlantic Ocean. Here they could go no further, so the pole was set up again and this time it fell toward the west. The people moved inland and here they came upon the town of Tokepace. The people from the west shot a white arrow of peace into Tokepace, and the town, in turn, responded with a red arrow of war. The two groups of people had never met until the evening of the war between them. When they did meet, they learned that they spoke the same language. Instead of going to war, they decided to compare medicines. Both people had spicewood, but the people from the east produced redroot. The two groups of people laid thier medicine side by side to demonstrate their power. The air was punctuated with whoops. The Koweta whooped four times and the earth began to shake. The Tokepace stomped their feet four times and the earth began to shake again as the two medicines combined. This was the beginning of what was to become the largest tribal confederacy on the North American continent, the first tribal towns of the multi-tribal, multi-language Mvskoke (Creek) Confederacy. 9:22 p.m. - 2001-09-18 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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